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    Functional explanations are legitimate explanations in wh... — Carmelics
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    Functional explanations are legitimate explanations in which a cause is explained by reference to its effect

    Causation
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    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

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    Reason for
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    • 1.Birds have hollow bones because hollow bones facilitate flight is an accepted explanatory statement
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    • 2.In this statement, hollow bones (a cause) is explained by the fact that hollow bones facilitate flight (an effect)
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    • 3.Where e is a cause and f is its effect, functional explanations hold that e occurred because the situation was such that an event like e would cause an event like f
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Causes must temporally precede their effects, so an effect cannot explain why its cause occurred without vicious circularity.
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    • 2.In 'birds have hollow bones because they facilitate flight,' the effect (flight facilitation) existed after the cause (bone structure), making the explanatory arrow run backwards in time.
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    • 3.Hempel's deductive-nomological model requires that explanatory factors be antecedent or simultaneous conditions, not subsequent consequences of what is explained.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.Functional explanations are legitimate only when a feedback mechanism is specified that selects for the trait because of its consequences, as Elster argued against Cohen's structural Marxism.
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    • 2.Without identifying the concrete causal mechanism—such as natural selection or intentional reinforcement—citing an effect as explanatory is merely a promissory note, not an explanation.
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    • 3.Cohen's own defense of functional explanation in 'Karl Marx's Theory of History' was undermined by his inability to specify the selection mechanism operating on social structures.
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    Related

    Birds have hollow bones because hollow bones facilitate flight is an accepted ex...Causes must temporally precede their effects, so an effect cannot explain why it...Cohen's own defense of functional explanation in 'Karl Marx's Theory of History'...Functional explanations are legitimate only when a feedback mechanism is specifi...
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    Hempel's deductive-nomological model requires that explanatory factors be antece...In 'birds have hollow bones because they facilitate flight,' the effect (flight ...In this statement, hollow bones (a cause) is explained by the fact that hollow b...Where e is a cause and f is its effect, functional explanations hold that e occu...Without identifying the concrete causal mechanism—such as natural selection or i...

    Similar

    Reason explanations are a form of ordinary causal explanations90%Reasons-explanations are selective explanations that isolate the part ...88%Purposive (reason) explanations are not species of causal explanation.87%Historical explanations are based on interpretation that makes outcome...85%

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    SEP: marxism-analytical
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    A functional explanation is one in which something that has an effect, is explained in terms of its effect. Cohen often uses an example from evolutionary biology to illustrate this; namely, that “birds have hollow bones because hollow bones facilitate flight”. Here, something (birds having hollow bones) which has a certain effect (facilitating flight) is explained by the fact that it has that effect (“birds have hollow bones because hollow bones facilitate flight”; G. Cohen 1988: 8). In short, w
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    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit